Flood couldn't stay Circle K workers from their appointed rounds

Monday, February 23, 2009 3:09 AM  |  Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend |

By Steve Huffman

shuffman@salisburypost.com

Kathy Erwin wasn't going to let a little thing like a 100-year flood keep her out of work Wednesday.

When she arrived at 5:50 a.m. at Circle K on East Innes Street for her work shift, the road was already beginning to flood.

So Erwin parked her red Pontiac on the far side of Innes Street, on the relative high ground of the parking lot of a Goodyear service center.

Then she waded across the street through water that reached her knees to her job as a clerk at Circle K.

The water continued to rise, however, and before long Erwin and her co-workers realized it was time to abandon ship ... er, store.

They set about getting all the cartons of cigarettes off the floor, then left and locked the doors behind them. They got out of the store about 8:30 a.m., watching the proceedings about an hour later from the parking lot of Starbucks across the street.

"I was there on time," Erwin laughed as she explained her trek to work.

Erwin managed to maintain a good sense of humor despite the fact that her Pontiac appeared on the verge of becoming submerged even in the Goodyear parking lot, which sat a few feet higher than Innes Street.

Such flooding is the kind of thing that happens when an area gets upwards of 6 inches of rain like Rowan County during Wednesday's wee hours.

"I'm from Illinois and we get rain up there," Erwin said. "But nothing like this."

As much an effort as Erwin made to get to work, Jenny Lasure, Circle K's assistant manager, probably made an even greater effort.

She parked on the east side of Interstate 85 (on the opposite side from the Circle K), in the IHOP parking lot. She then hiked to Circle K.

Along the way, Lasure had to cross the interstate as well as scale banks leading to and from the highway. Finally, Lasure had to climb a fence topped with barbed wire to get to the Circle K.

"She said she had to come make sure I was OK," Erwin said as she laughed, referring to Lasure's persistence.